Analysis by an industry leader has examined how the type of borrower affects the likelihood of a mortgage default

Up, down. Up, down. Now lift, step forward, lift, step back. And again. Sound like your local gym class? Well, it could be. Or, it could be the sound of HSBC, battling the bulging credit waste lines of the financially unfit Australian populace. HSBC’s latest ad campaign – hitting a range of advertising channels near you for the next few weeks – encourages customers to ‘Bankercise’, a bizarre hybrid term of the word exercise that may just find its way into common parlance post-campaign. After all, who wouldn’t want to be like HSBC’s poster boy for the campaign ‘Brick Phillips’, who has the ‘banking body of your dreams?’ – obviously those rate offers can somehow result in some nicely shaped lats and biceps. All it will take is a series of savings sessions, a personal refinancing class, and a few extra early morning investment boot camps (and a damn good name to match). The bank says the new verb – Bankercise that is – is defined as ‘getting financially fit with HSBC’. With the generous wastelines of some of the brokers in the market, let’s hope HSBC soon comes back into third party distribution – we could certainly use some serious Bankercise.